Kathy Hannun, Geothermal Heat Pumps, California
Kathy Hannun, who has been in the industry for 7 years, is the President & Founder of Dandelion Energy.
Why is clean energy important to you? Energy is at the base of most forms of human progress. Our entire modern way of life and much of human flourishing is made possible by abundant energy. Now our task is to figure out how to keep increasing the amount of energy at our disposal while dramatically reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from that energy. I'm drawn to this project because it of how critical it is.
What's a memorable clean energy project you’ve worked on? The first geothermal heat pump Dandelion installed was at the home of Becky Meier, an activist who lives in Upstate NY and organizes against natural gas fracking. It was rewarding to make it possible for her to replace her natural gas furnace with a geothermal heat pump.
What did you do prior to working in clean energy? Why did you transition to the clean energy industry? Before working in clean energy, I was a Product Manager at Google X. I transitioned into clean energy because I became totally absorbed with the question of how to make geothermal heat pumps less expensive and easier for American homeowners to get installed.
What do you wish more people knew about the clean energy industry? People should know you don't need experience in clean energy to join the industry. Most people I work with in clean energy are recent arrivals to the industry.
Why should congress invest in clean energy jobs? Clean energy jobs tend to be hyper local, so investing in clean energy jobs has a lot of benefits for local economies in addition to the climate benefits.
